Observing Earth

By Brian murphy | Science - the intellectual and practical activity encompassing the systematic study of the structure and behavior of the physical and natural world through observation and experiment.

From wildlife trafficking to endangered species protection and hunting, the Trump Administration could change much about how the U.S. protects wildlife at home and abroad.<p>What a president will do for wildlife has never been much of a campaign issue. Debates focus on national security, trade, …

Wild creatures don't have the luxury of curling up under the covers—here's how they make it through winter.<p>Our winter survival skills often involve staying indoors with plenty of blankets, cocoa, and mindless TV at the ready.<p>But wild animals don't have that luxury—they have to tough it out in the …

Advocates applaud the move by the world’s largest consumer of ivory, saying it could help save Africa’s remaining elephants.<p>China will shut down its domestic ivory trade by the end of 2017, according to an announcement made today by the Chinese government.<p>The announcement comes more than a year …

Italy's Campi Flegrei may be awakening from a long slumber, scientists warn.<p>A long-quiet yet huge supervolcano that lies under 500,000 people in Italy may be waking up and approaching a "critical state," scientists report this week in the journal <i>Nature Communications</i>.<p>Based on physical measurements …

Biologists were overjoyed to find the healthy babies, including a “breathtaking” male cub in its den on a wildlife refuge.<p>Using GPS technology and camera traps, biologists were thrilled to find rare litters of ocelot kittens and a den site—the first found for the small wild cats in a South Texas …

• A team of Russian and Vietnamese researchers described Ophryophryne elfina, the Elfin mountain toad, in the journal ZooKeys last month.<br>• The toad, one of the smallest species of horned mountain toads ever described to science, was given the name Ophryophryne elfina, which roughly translates to …